The White House handlers have their hands full with Trump who would not recognize truth if it bitch-slapped him in the face. It is almost painful to watch Sarah Huckabee Sanders squirm in the spot light as she attempts to put a positive spin on the maze of duplicity, outright falsehood, and deliberate obfuscation of truth that the Trump administration puts on our door step each morning. She has now formed a triumvirate with Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer as spokes persons who have made a fool out of themselves in signing onto a job which could only generate foolishness.

I do not think Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a bad person. She is the daughter of Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas who has run for the Presidency several times and who is an ordained Southern Baptist minister. I’m sure here Baptist roots are still conspicuous in her life and they help her to cope in the impossible position she has signed onto. I have no doubt that she is a Christian who has noble intent in her life, professionally and personally. But, just where is integrity? She has taken a job to help purvey egregious dishonesty and I’m sure she believes that God is leading her each day. But, where is the spiritual, moral, and intellectual integrity that would lead most people to resign, probably for some lame-ass reason as, “I want to spend more time with my family.”

Faith is very important to me, believing that faith of any denominational variety has a necessary place in our world. But faith is not beyond the influence of our human penchant to be “dishonest,” to not allow that faith to influence us in the direction of moral, spiritual, and intellectual integrity. And many people have signed onto the Trump agenda whole heartedly, laying aside their personal and spiritual integrity, pinning their hopes that his bluster and lunacy will help “Make America Great Again.” They have pushed the “Do Not Disturb” button in their heart and will not allow critical thinking to take place. When that happens, lunacy cannot help but tease us with its vain promises.

Remember Trump’s brazen vow during the campaign, “I could shoot someone in the streets of Manhattan” and not lose his support base. He was right. He captured many hungry hearts who were, and are willing to suspend judgment and cast their fervent hopes on a man who is the epitome of everything that our country has stood for…or has pretended to stand for…since our birth in 1776. These people are not necessarily bad or unintelligent people. They are merely demonstrating a core human quality, we tend to believe what we want to believe and exclude every consideration that might give us pause. I again use my favorite bumper sticker wisdom, “Don’t believe everything you think.”

The Trump administration is again demonstrating its cavalier attitude toward truth and respect for the common human decencies that usually accompany come with personal and professional integrity. Trump’s son, Donald Jr., has been caught red-handed courting Russian interference in last year’s election but immediately the administrations spin machine kicked into gear. This “spin machine” is designed to attempt to make palatable egregious breaches of decorum and compliance with rules, knowing that the base of Trump’s support is sitting anxiously waiting for them to offer a “cover” which will be amenable to their heart’s desires.

No one is completely honest, certainly not politicians. But until Trump there was some limit to subterfuge and “spinning” at which point the humbled politician, often with great shame will acknowledge, “Oops, I am guilty.” This is because most politicians are graced with a human quality which permits them, albeit reluctantly, to admit having made a mistake. But Trump has set up a “machine” in the White House which has as its prime objective declaring to the American public, “I am not at fault. It’s ‘fake news.’”

A related consideration is the administrations sense of entitlement. Donald Jr. demonstrated his father’s penchant for playing loose and easy with basic principles of political decency. When “Jr” was presented with the tasty morsel of an offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton he could not pass it up, knowing that whatever happened the administration’s spin machine would immediately tackle glossing the “difficulty” over. “Jr” had imbibed of the poisonous Kool-aid offered by his father, the knowledge that whatever he might do would be overlooked by his father’s base.

Trump is actually offering the American public a gift. We are now staring face to face with the speciousness of “truth” and a chance to acknowledge just how self-serving our definition of terms like “truth” are. He represents an irruption of our duplicitous heart into the daily charade that we take to be “reality.” Can we learn from self-exposure? Usually not, but I’m not giving up!

In Warsaw, Poland Trump has declared that “the future of the West” is at stake. Furthermore, he continues to speak in a confrontational manner with North Korea, not realizing that in Kim sun Jung, he has met his “twin brother”. One world class bully is facing off with at one of the world’s other bullies. Yes, “the West” is in jeopardy but a critical dimension of this dilemma is that Trump is now the Commander in Chief of the “only remaining super power” in the world. And, boys and girls, do we want this to be the case? My country has elected this egregiously mentally unstable man to the Presidency and since then he has continued to demonstrate his impulsivity and lack of civility to other world leaders. For those of you who are continuing to support him with rhetoric of the sort, “We-need-to-all-stand-behind our President,” you are failing to acknowledge the elephant in the room, “He is mentally unstable.!!!”

Of course, we all are, I agree. But even I, admittedly neurotic as hell, would be a more “mentally stable” figure in the White House than Trump and I’d be smart enough to admit to myself, “Hell what a mess I’ve gotten myself into” and quickly defer to my handlers until I could find a moment to sheepishly resign for some reason like, “I need to spend more time with my family.” Trump enjoys this “mess” he is in and is spared any distress that would “self” consciousness would bring to the table being incapable of considering the suffering and anguish he could soon be subjecting our troops to. In his heart, these troops do not exist nor do the rest of us. To him each day is merely “another day at the ranch” where he can bluster about in complete disregard to the consequences of his action.

Politically, he needs a good war at this point. He is proving to all that he is not capable of being President but all he has to do is start launching missiles and it will be even more incumbent on all good Americans to “stand behind our man.” War would be the perfect distraction to “legitimate” him as President in the mind of many. Unconsciously he knows this and in the mind of some of his minions they know it consciously. This moment, like all moments, will be determined by who, or what is in power. His concerns about “the West” will strike alarm in the hearts of millions and, when faced with the fear of annihilation, human kind will always line up behind their strong man.

But the course of human history, and of each one’s individual history, is not determined only by military and economic power. That is why it is so dangerous that we have put a man like Trump in this position…and then stand hapless by and watch…while he ratches-up the tension everywhere he goes. He loves the tension, like an adrenaline junkie, and has a long history of coming out on top in the resulting childish battles-of-will he creates. But “coming out on top” will not always work for anyone and for a tribe like ours it can lead to devastation. “Coming out on top” is a childish ego-demand and most of us learn at some point in childhood that being driven by “coming out on top” is at some point dangerous to all

What do you do if your child is crazy? Do you simply tell him that he is and then demand, “Now stop it?” Do you just wait for it to blow over?” Well, if he’s 71 years old it is not gonna “blow over.” How would a Congressional committee go to the President of the United States and inform him, “You are mentally unstable and so we are removing you from office?” Is there any chance he would meekly say, “Oh, I’m sorry” and quietly accede to their demands. Not likely as some types of mental illness cannot acknowledge any type of fault as their ego is too fragile to acknowledge human frailty. They are likely to lash out with violent rage. And, after all, he is the President of the United States so he cannot be crazy, can he?

Speaking as a former clinician, many “families” cannot acknowledge that their son is “nuts” as it would reflect negatively on them. “What ya’ mean that our son is nuts? No way. We all come from a long line of successful, intelligent, normal people. Our genetic pool is fine.” Of course, anyone looking on would start nervously looking at each other, perhaps snickering, realizing that the “genetic pool” of this family was anything but healthy.

This is the problem with an ideologically inbred group. They are so intoxicated with their ideas that to give any of them up, or to give up a standard bearer for their ideas, is beneath them. They would prefer watching the whole country go to hell, and jeopardize the whole world than to acknowledge having made a mistake and take action to correct this horrible blunder of theirs.

The whole world is looking on as Donald Trump is demonstrating what Hillary Clinton described, so graciously, that he is “temperamentally unfit to be President of the United States.” But the Republican Party opts for passivity, not able to come to grips with reality, and intervene for their own sake and that of the country and world. “Madness in great ones must not unwatched go” nor must it in mediocre to less-than-great ones.

Being a former clinician, it is frightening to watch this insanity continue to unfold. All of his life, Trump has behaved outrageously as if he were crying out, a la Jim Carrey in one of his movies, “Some body stop me!” But no one has ever stopped him, not even the United States of America.

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The following are three blogs that I offer. Please check the other two out sometime!

A headline on this morning’s on-line CNN said, “Republicans to Trump: Please stop.” But, you see, that is like trying to tell a two-year old boy who is acting-out like to “please stop.” It is foolish and reveals very bad parenting for by even that time a two-year old boy has learned that he does not have to stop. The job of the parents at that time, before it is forever too late, is to intervene after admitting they have been lax in setting limits and firmly stop the behavior. Therapeutic behavioral intervention is helpful but only if the parents are willing to participate and in so doing acknowledge, “We have erred and have indulged this child too long.”

The Republicans have indulged this child since he first announced for the Presidency. He demonstrated immediately that he had no respect for decorum and simple human decency and each time they overlooked his misbehavior and in so doing affirmed him again that his actions and words were alright. They validated him. And a two-year old child needs to learn that certain behaviors and words will not be permitted without consequences. Therefore, Republican dishonesty and hypocrisy of the past few decades has found an expression. A “dysfunctional family” has created a monster who is now demonstrating daily the horrible qualities they have been trying to hide for so long. And, like all dysfunctional families tend to do, they will defend “little Johnny”…in this case “little Donny”…and try to explain away his misbehavior and blame it on someone else, not having the courage to acknowledge, “We created this little monster.”

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The following are three blogs that I offer. Please check the other two out sometime!

The Republicans effort to “repeal and replace Obamacare” has again faltered. But they will keep trying as they have no choice. “We said we’re gonna do it, so we gotta do it,” they whisper to each other for this is a key element in their “party of no” identity.

Identity politics works like that. Identity politics is only about ideas and disallows any long-range plan like, “What does the country need us to focus on right now?” This lunacy over Obamacare could easily be resolved by “tinkering” with the matter and resolving the problems that are present and putting the matter behind them. But that would deprive them of the “fun” they are having by stewing in their own juices and imperiling the welfare of the country at the same time.

Congress is demonstrating the lunacy of our collective psyche once again. They have no “purpose” other than maintaining electability so that the power grid that they are part of can be maintained. And some of them have the audacity to claim passionate religious faith when actually the only thing they actually bow to and worship each day of their life is, “How do I vote on this matter so that I will please my constituency and get re-elected?” And our nation still claims to be a “Christian nation” when, if you look closely, our true “lord and savior” is ruthless capitalism and consumerism. Of course, the best illustration of our lunacy is our fearless leader. His presence speaks for itself.

Wow, now who can lie like this with a straight face? Now who does this make you think of? North Korea kidnapped this young man, obviously tortured and abused him, then shipped him back to his family in a coma, and now he is dead. And they have no idea how it all happened??? How can anyone, or any nation, brazenly like like this? Well, we know of the orange-haired, small-handed, thin-skinned leader of one world power who is lies with equal brazenness. Now in North Korea, this dishonesty can take place because the tiny, mentally unstable leader of that country is propped up by handlers who will not challenge him. Oh!!! Kinda what we got going on here, isn’t it?

But our President is a Christian, albeit a “baby Christian,” according to many of his followers so if the Lord is leading him then his lies must be the truth I guess. Oh my what a topsy-turvy world we are giving our children.